IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| India and Tibet : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
276 THE NEGOTIATIONS
Tibetan Government to make a start towards a settlement
by releasing the two Lachung men (British subjects) who
had been seized last year beyond Khamba Jong, and that
the Tibetan Government had agreed. He wished to
know when and in what manner they should be handed
over. I informed him that they should be handed over
to me the next morning by two members of the Council.
That morning I held a full Durbar, and two members
of Council, accompanied by two Lamas, brought the two
Lachung men before me. I told the men, who showed
the liveliest satisfaction at their impending release, that I
had received the commands of the King-Emperor to obtain
their release from the Tibetan Government, and they were
now free. His Majesty had further commanded that if
they had been ill-treated reparation should be demanded
from the Tibetan Government. I wished to know, there-
fore, if they had been ill-treated or not. They said they
had been slightly beaten at Shigatse, and their things had
been taken from them, but since their arrival in Lhasa
they had been well fed and had not been beaten. I told
them that they would be examined by a medical officer, to
ascertain if their statements were correct.
I then turned to the Tibetan Councillors and said that
the King-Emperor considered the seizure, imprisonment,
and beating of two of his subjects as an exceedingly
serious offence. It formed one of the main reasons why
the Mission had moved forward from Khamba Jong to
Gyantse, and one of the principal terms of the settlement,
which I had been commanded to make at Lhasa itself,
was the release of these men. If the Tibetan Govern-
ment had not cared to have them in Tibet they should
have returned them across the frontier, or, in any case,
have handed them over to us at Khamba .Tong. Their
seizure and imprisonment for a year was altogether un-
pardonable. I trusted they now understood that the
subjects of the King-Emperor could not be ill-treated
with impunity, and that we would in future, as we did
now, hold them strictly responsible for the good treatment
of British subjects in Tibet.
The Lachung men were then taken out and examined
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